Can Garcia end run of Major disappointments?
Cink was enthralled, as was everybody else, when he saw the 19-year-old Spaniard, dubbed ‘El Nino’ gallop up Medinah’s 16th fairway having slashed his ball, eyes shut, from behind a tree and scissor kick in mid-air as he strained to see it reach the green.
“I played a lot with Sergio,” Cink recalled as he prepared for today’s renewal at Hazeltine National Golf Club near Minneapolis, “including 10 years ago at the PGA when he hit the shot with his eyes closed.
“Well, I was the other one in the group that no one remembers,” he added with a chuckle.
“I remember the next week being interviewed about Sergio and calling him a breath of fresh air.”
There would be no better moment than that to invoke the adage that ‘he who laughs last laughs longest’. For 10 years on, 19 players have celebrated a first-time major victory since Medinah and forgotten man Cink is one of them, not the kid from Spain they called El Nino.
With six tournament victories on the European Tour and seven in the US on the PGA Tour, including the so-called “fifth major”, the Players Championship, the breath of fresh air has hardly blown out for Garcia. Yet, now 29 and a decade removed from upstaging the winner Tiger Woods with an audacious second place at that year’s PGA Championship, the Spaniard is still searching for an elusive major victory and picking up an awful lot of baggage along the way.
It wouldn’t be unfair to say Garcia has turned losing majors into an art form. His fourth place at Bethpage Black in the 2002 US Open was a lesson is masochism as he complained bitterly that the heavy rains that befell New York’s Long Island during the second round should brought about a suspension of play and implied that if Woods had been on the course the USGA officials would have acted accordingly.
Not only did that not go down well with the tournament chiefs, it also incurred the wrath of Woods, who exacted the perfect revenge by winning, and upset the boisterous New York crowd who heckled him mercilessly for the rest of the tournament, and took great delight in jeering at his elaborate pre-shot waggle.
There was the third round at the 2005 US Open when, having stayed in contention at Pinehurst No 2, Garcia shot a 75 to take himself out of contention as Michael Campbell landed his first and only major to date.
The bad days at the majors continued the following year when Woods again had his day at the Spaniard’s expense at Royal Liverpool. Paired together in the final round on the scorched Hoylake track, Garcia, dressed from head to toe in canary yellow, had his wings ruthlessly clipped by the world number one and having shot a 65 on the Saturday, capitulated in the presence of Woods with a closing 73.
Woods was again the victor a month later when the PGA Championship returned to Medinah, Garcia removing himself from contention yet again on a Sunday with bogeys at the seventh, eighth and 13th, his closing two-under-par 70 trailing the world number one home by six shots.
Then came the Harrington years and Ireland’s hero took advantage of Garcia clangers, first at Carnoustie in the Dubliner’s first Open success in 2007, and then at Oakland Hills 12 months ago in the PGA.
“I hesitate to say I’m surprised he hasn’t (won a major),” Cink said “because there’s only four a year, and it’s just a lot of things have to go right for you to win a major; unless your name’s Tiger Woods and he wins a handful.
“So I hesitate to say I’m surprised. He’s got a tremendous game. Obviously I think it goes without saying his putting and his difficulties with putting have held him back in some big tournaments. But I’ve heard that a lot lately about Sergio and being the one now who I guess is sort of the guy who is the best player to never have won a major.
“But I see him hit balls and I see the confidence that he has in the Ryder Cup and the fun-loving nature and I just don’t think that will last very long. I think he’ll get one.”
Whether he does or not, Garcia believes his 10 years at the top have been a success.
“In a way, it’s funny, because it feels like I’ve been here for a long time, but at the same time it feels like time has gone so quickly,” he said recently.
“Like you look back at ‘99 or 2000 and it feels like it was three years ago, not 10 years ago.
“So it’s kind of a funny feeling. But I’m very proud with the way my career has gone. I think there’s no doubt when you turn pro you hope you can go out there and win every tournament and all those things.
“But realistically I think that I’m proud with what I’ve done, I think not only on the course but off it, trying to help as many people as possible. So I think we always try our hardest. So, yeah, I’m pretty happy.”
Happy financially sure, but how satisfied can one be when he is always reminded of the fact he has a glaring omission from his CV?
Here’s a recent press conference exchange with a journalist that shows what Garcia has to deal with whenever he strides into a tournament media centre.
Q: There’s always a debate about who’s the best player not to win a major. Would you say you hold that honour now, and if so, how does it sit with you?
Garcia: Do I? I don’t know. I don’t really care.
Q: It’s sort of a badge of honour in a way.
Garcia: I understand what you’re trying to say. But I don’t know. Am I? I don’t know. I guess you have to look at someone’s career and see how they’ve done in majors and everything. But I couldn’t really answer that question, I think.
Q: If you were considered the better player not to win a major, it’s something you’d like to shake off?
Garcia: I’d love to get rid of it, yes.
If only to stop the questions. In three thrusts from a reporter, Garcia is reduced from feisty defensiveness to tame admission, no wonder the likes of Tiger and Pádraig relish a Sunday in his company.
Woods, in fact, offered a reality check for Garcia after they had played a round together at last week’s WGC-Bridgestone Inviational, a reminder that the Spaniard’s days as El Nino are long gone.
“You know, he’s not the new young gun anymore,” Woods said. “He’s become one of the Tour vets. “That’s certainly a transformation that happens out here. There’s a whole ‘nother generation. Sergio is a generation right behind me and now there’s a whole ‘nother generation with AK (Anthony Kim) and guys that age and there’s a whole ‘nother generation with Danny Lee and Rory (McIlroy), who are teens.
“The game is very healthy, and Sergio has — I would say had a pretty darn good career so far.”
Darn good. If you’re not counting majors.
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